Disneyphile crossing over to the dark side this summer

[Anal Annie]

OK, so we own in the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) and always just stay at one of the DVC resorts and never venture outside of WDW. We thought maybe this summer we'd tack on a couple of extra days to visit the 2 Universal parks. This means renting a car for a couple days and of course the extra park tix. I don't really know anything about Universal but I DO know they have some Front of the Line pass thing that is just for their resort guests. Being so used to the Disney Fastpass system I was wondering if it's worthwhile to also book a nights stay in a Universal hotel for this benefit?! Not even sure we'd STAY there. I guess maybe. We could pack a day bag & spend 1 night. But we're not looking to do a split stay or anything. Just starting to think about planning this part. Thoughts? Worth it? Don't bother? Do we need to park hop like we do at WDW or just 1 day per park & be done?! Are there ever discount codes for room packages? This idea is strictly for the early access & front of the line thing. Of course money is always an object so if it's not really WORTH IT then we'll pass on the idea. But mostly I wondered about how to find a deal on a package.

THANKS FOR ANY ADIVCE!!

 

[macraven]

OK, so we own in the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) and always just stay at one of the DVC resorts and never venture outside of WDW. We thought maybe this summer we'd tack on a couple of extra days to visit the 2 Universal parks. This means renting a car for a couple days and of course the extra park tix. I don't really know anything about Universal but I DO know they have some Front of the Line pass thing that is just for their resort guests. Being so used to the Disney Fastpass system I was wondering if it's worthwhile to also book a nights stay in a Universal hotel for this benefit?! Not even sure we'd STAY there. I guess maybe. We could pack a day bag & spend 1 night. But we're not looking to do a split stay or anything. Just starting to think about planning this part. Thoughts? Worth it? Don't bother? Do we need to park hop like we do at WDW or just 1 day per park & be done?! Are there ever discount codes for room packages? This idea is strictly for the early access & front of the line thing. Of course money is always an object so if it's not really WORTH IT then we'll pass on the idea. But mostly I wondered about how to find a deal on a package.

THANKS FOR ANY ADIVCE!!

welcome
come on over !!
check out the darkside.............

there are many that do come over from the motherland for day trips and do book a one night at the onsite hotels.
in the long run, it would be cheaper to pay a for the room than to buy the vip express pass or the express pass plus and the ticket.
(vip express comes with park admission)

when you are a guest onsite, you are allowed unlimited usage of express lines for rides and shows. (with the exception of 4 rides)

you would get the usage of the express lines and EE for 2 days.
the day you check in to the hotel and the day you check out.
your hotel key is valid until the park closes on that second day.

you also are allowed early entry, one hour before the park is open to the general public. only the parry hotter section is open that first hour.

buy a one day ticket and you can upgrade it before you leave the park.
you can make it a 2 day ticket by paying the increase.
this way in case you feel you do not want to return, no money wasted as you only have the one day ticket.
you pay the difference between the two prices when you upgrade.

there are 1 day, 2 park tickets so you can hop to the studios from IOA.
no limitation on how many times you do that in a day.

there is a $15 parking fee at the hotels.
the charge starts at midnight.
if you stayed 1 day and checked out of the hotel, you can leave your car at that hotel lot and not have to pay another day. as long as you leave by midnight on the 2nd day, no charges.

take the water taxi from the hotel to city walk for the parks.

i don't know of any discounts on tickets for one day.

if you have AAA, you can get a discount on the room.
to get the promo discount, you need to stay more than one night.
stay more save more is open to anyone to use.
that's the current discount from now to jan '13.

if you stay onsite, you could use the pool in the evening at your hotel or any of the other 2 hotels.
show your room key and you will get towels from that hotel pool to use.
each pool at the hotels have a changing room area.
showers, towels, etc.

since you are new to the darkside, i think you would enjoy checking out parry hotter and the rest of the parks.

new things are being added to the parks starting this year.

i totally understand not wanting to do a split stay.
you are hesitant since you have never been at uo.
if you take 2 days out of your disney trip, spend a couple or one day in the uo park, you still have disney for the rest of your stay.

i do split vacations every year since 1993.
i start at the motherland for about 7 nights and then move to the darkside resorts for 9 days.
i get the best of both worlds.



check out the parks and city walk for what they have in them.

www.citywalk.com

www.universalorlando.com

 

[Metro West]

Welcome to the Darkside!

I just wanted to remind you...there is no such thing as a "front of the line pass" at Universal Orlando. Onsite resort guests get unlimited Express access during their stay but it's not front of the line.

Ask as many questions as you need to...we are here to help.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks for the replies! I was just trying to figure out if the benefits of booking a room for $200+ was worthwhile for this express line thing & the 1 hour early admission. I was planning to pre-order 2-day base tix online from Undercover Tourist unless I found something recommended to be better over here.

If we DON'T book a room and don't have this early access will we have enough time to get thru both parks (1 day for each) if we just come with nothing special?! We're going in mid-August so am assuming it will be busy. Our stay is Aug. 11-21 so I was thinking we'd do this mid trip but not on the weekend.

 

[BlueGoose]

Hi,

I'm not sure whether you'll find this helpful or not, but myself, sister and mum spent a day at Universal in September 11. Being Disneyphiles too, we didn't want to split out stay either.

Because of this, we decided to stay at the Royal Pacific for a night, and went for the 2 park 1 day ticket, the following day.

This meant that we had early entry to go visit Harry Potter (big fan!), which meant it was relatively empty so we were able to photograph the shops and walk on the ride with ease. It also meant that we had the express tickets, which meant we were able to do both parks in one day, without rushing things. I'd definitely recommend you staying on site the night before, as the extras were extremely useful.

In addition to this, we had a chance to see CityWalk the night before visiting the parks.

Hope you have a great time whichever way you decided to do it!

 

[macraven]

Anal, i thought about this last night and thought i would throw this out for you.


depending on the number in your party, you could take the mears shuttle from disney resort to universal.
you would be dropped off at city walk area and would have to take the boat or use the walking path to the hotel you will stay at.

the mears shuttle is $19 round trip per adult, $16 per child.

you could set it up for one day and list a different day for your return to the motherland.

you can't take luggage on the shuttle but could take a backpack or something like a travel bag on the shuttle.


it would be cheaper to do that instead of renting a car.
2 day rental car + gas could be $75 ??
a parking fee at the hotel, $15 + tax

play with the numbers and go with what suits you.

 

[Anal Annie]

Anal, i thought about this last night and thought i would throw this out for you.


depending on the number in your party, you could take the mears shuttle from disney resort to universal.
you would be dropped off at city walk area and would have to take the boat or use the walking path to the hotel you will stay at.

the mears shuttle is $19 round trip per adult, $16 per child.

you could set it up for one day and list a different day for your return to the motherland.

you can't take luggage on the shuttle but could take a backpack or something like a travel bag on the shuttle.


it would be cheaper to do that instead of renting a car.
2 day rental car + gas could be $75 ??
a parking fee at the hotel, $15 + tax

play with the numbers and go with what suits you.

Thanks for the idea. This dumb 2 day adventure is going to end up costing us $500 before I know it!! That wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I brought up the idea of crossing over. I wanted August to be a cheap trip for a change (we're buying our WDW AP's on our spring break trip).

I mentioned the idea of driving to FL this time to DH and he looked at me like I had 3 heads - 2 with horns and one with fangs. Driving would be cheaper than flying by probably $200-300 and no rental to mess with once we're there AND I wouldn't have to place a grocery delivery with Garden Grocer. We could just bring our own stuff. I haven't booked flights yet but am in a serious shopping mode for them so I may try bringing it up one more time.

(PS) you can call me Annie!!

 

[macraven]

Annie, i drove 2 times from chgo area.
never again.........never again.............


1. it cut into my vacation time for disney.
i had so many days for vacation from work and it took me 2 days of that for travel.
that meant 2 less days in the parks.
i was stupid.
i drove straight through and then was so exhausted, i blew the first day off at the motherland.

i had a friend with me and we shared the driving.
couldn't sleep when the friend was driving.

2. what's $200 of savings if you lose a day at the park due to being beat.
and, if i stopped getting coffee out, i could save that $200 to put towards the plane ticket.

3. i learned i can sit on a plane for 3 hours much better than being in a car for 19.5 hours.

if your hubby says you all will fly, let him have his way.........

 

[Anal Annie]

Annie, i drove 2 times from chgo area.
never again.........never again.............


1. it cut into my vacation time for disney.
i had so many days for vacation from work and it took me 2 days of that for travel.
that meant 2 less days in the parks.
i was stupid.
i drove straight through and then was so exhausted, i blew the first day off at the motherland.

i had a friend with me and we shared the driving.
couldn't sleep when the friend was driving.

2. what's $200 of savings if you lose a day at the park due to being beat.
and, if i stopped getting coffee out, i could save that $200 to put towards the plane ticket.

3. i learned i can sit on a plane for 3 hours much better than being in a car for 19.5 hours.

if your hubby says you all will fly, let him have his way.........

Oh he probably will get his way. We also drove it once non-stop, many, MANY years ago. Before we had DS. Made the mistake of leaving late on a Friday night after work and driving all night. It should take about 14-15 hours from here. I remember hitting fog in southern GA, northern FL around 5 AM. Oh it was miserable. We said we'd never drive it again. Two summers ago we drove down to the DVC resort at HHI. Again, we left the DC area on a Fri. night & drove to almost NC where we stopped. Then we only had to drive the remaining 6 hours on Saturday morning. On the way home we drove it straight thru. I thought it would be a test to see how we got along on a road trip again. I thought it was OK. DH & DS said it was far enough in a car though. THIS TIME I would plan to leave on a Sat. (I was planning to actually fly down on Sun. so we could avoid paying the higher Sat. night DVC points) so we wouldn't lose anything off the beginning if we stopped over night somewhere on Sat. night. We would then only lose the daytime hours of our return day if we drove (if we flew I'd book an early evening flight home).

It was just a thought.

 

[bblanch]

We are in the same situation. We decided to do exactly what BlueGoose is suggesting. I'm glad to see it worked well for them and hope we experience the same.

Unfortunately, it's costing us quite a bit more as we have 6 of us and therefore have to book 2 rooms but I think the onsite benefits will be worth it.

Good luck!

 

[MomtoGKC]

Yes, it will be more expensive than you planned no matter how you do it! We just went up for our first time this weekend. We liked the parks, but we loved the hotel! We stayed at the Portofino and it was so nice - beautiful, huge rooms compared to Disney, good food, Starbucks coffee.

We thought getting in the hour early was totally worth it - it was so nice to be walking out into the rest of the park while the crowds were all walking towards Harry Potter. We were able to do both parks in one day - we were there from 8am until about 2:30. We skipped the big rollercoasters and the shows though - my kids don't like them. We did have a sit down lunch at Citywalk and did the other rides once each.

Oh - and if you decide to blow the budget, go eat at Emiril's - SOO good but very expensive!

 

[La2kw]

Universal is definitely worth it. The Universal resorts are wonderful and Loews (who run the resort) know hotel service much better than Disney does. I'm a DVC member too, but we love our Universal trips and always do a few nights at Universal in combination with our WDW trip.

 

[glocon]

Let me put it this way- You know how a Disney trip is just better when you stay on site? It is the same with Universal. When you take your afternoon break, you walk to your hotel in 10 minutes or take the boat in even less time. Or you could take a pedi-cab. The resorts are all Deluxe when you are comparing them to Disney, and generally less expensive than Disney deluxe. We have stayed at HRH and visited the RPR, both are beautiful, but my 16 year old son prefers the HRHs ambience being a cool teenager and all So just think of how different your Disney experience would be staying off site- its the same thing with Universal- it makes a great experience even better!

 

[arcurioa]

Can I ask what you have decided to do or what you have found in the way of deals. We are DVC and staying at WDW in BLT from 8/3-8/9 then planned on going to US/IOA until 8/13. I prices I am getting for the hotels at US are insane. I know they include Express and early entry and they are nice and all, but $1300 for 3 nights plus tickets is not what I had in mind. Plus parking - this is turning out to be a very expensive extra couple of days.

By the way if you are in the DC area have your considered the auto-train. We take it every year. It is about the same price as flying and you have your car with you. Just a thought.

 

[pixeegrl]

Can I ask what you have decided to do or what you have found in the way of deals. We are DVC and staying at WDW in BLT from 8/3-8/9 then planned on going to US/IOA until 8/13. I prices I am getting for the hotels at US are insane. I know they include Express and early entry and they are nice and all, but $1300 for 3 nights plus tickets is not what I had in mind. Plus parking - this is turning out to be a very expensive extra couple of days.

By the way if you are in the DC area have your considered the auto-train. We take it every year. It is about the same price as flying and you have your car with you. Just a thought.

Your rate is a weekend rate. Are you able to flip your dates around? If you were able to stay the 9-12 it would be $940...even cheaper the 12-15 $680....that's probably a mute point though since your dates are before then. It's all about peak season Enjoy your trip though! We are going down the following week. What do you think of the Auto train. We were debating it. You can send me a PM as to not take over the post with it

 

[Anal Annie]

Let me put it this way- You know how a Disney trip is just better when you stay on site? It is the same with Universal. When you take your afternoon break, you walk to your hotel in 10 minutes or take the boat in even less time. Or you could take a pedi-cab. The resorts are all Deluxe when you are comparing them to Disney, and generally less expensive than Disney deluxe. We have stayed at HRH and visited the RPR, both are beautiful, but my 16 year old son prefers the HRHs ambience being a cool teenager and all So just think of how different your Disney experience would be staying off site- its the same thing with Universal- it makes a great experience even better!

I would be totally fine with something on a "moderate" level for this purpose as it's just one night & I am not doing this for the resort, I'm only doing it for the perks that come with it. The fact that they're less than what Disney charges is irrelevant for me since we own DVC. It would be nice if they offered something more budget friendly like Disney does.

Can I ask what you have decided to do or what you have found in the way of deals. We are DVC and staying at WDW in BLT from 8/3-8/9 then planned on going to US/IOA until 8/13. I prices I am getting for the hotels at US are insane. I know they include Express and early entry and they are nice and all, but $1300 for 3 nights plus tickets is not what I had in mind. Plus parking - this is turning out to be a very expensive extra couple of days.

By the way if you are in the DC area have your considered the auto-train. We take it every year. It is about the same price as flying and you have your car with you. Just a thought.

Which hotel are you booking that's going to cost you $1,300?! Do you have to book 2 rooms or something? I have been pricing the Royal Pacific which is running $224 / night and the Hard Rock which is $244 / night. I need to ask DH which one he prefers. I really haven't even LOOKED at the properties online at all to see their rooms or ammenities since that's not why we're going - I have only looked at prices. I was waiting to get past the 6 month mark to book. No particular reason, I just picked 6 months (5 days to go now). I looked online again last night - the rate is a little bit cheaper per night to do 3 nights or more. But I only need 1 night. For the extra $20 I may just book the HRH. The budget is already blown!!

Yes, we live in the DC area and I looked into the auto train a few years ago. We'd have to drive an hour or whatever it is over to Lorton, VA to catch it. I have an SUV and it was going to cost more to bring it than I wanted to pay. In years past it's always been cheaper to fly & use the free DME (back when I could get round trip flights on AT or SW for $120 or $130). I haven't priced the train recently, I can only imagine it's gone up along with everything else in life. Flights for this trip are costing us $628 total which I'm guessing is still cheaper than taking the train.

 

[pixeegrl]

I would be totally fine with something on a "moderate" level for this purpose as it's just one night & I am not doing this for the resort, I'm only doing it for the perks that come with it. The fact that they're less than what Disney charges is irrelevant for me since we own DVC. It would be nice if they offered something more budget friendly like Disney does.



Which hotel are you booking that's going to cost you $1,300?! Do you have to book 2 rooms or something? I have been pricing the Royal Pacific which is running $224 / night and the Hard Rock which is $244 / night. I need to ask DH which one he prefers. I really haven't even LOOKED at the properties online at all to see their rooms or ammenities since that's not why we're going - I have only looked at prices. I was waiting to get past the 6 month mark to book. No particular reason, I just picked 6 months (5 days to go now). I looked online again last night - the rate is a little bit cheaper per night to do 3 nights or more. But I only need 1 night. For the extra $20 I may just book the HRH. The budget is already blown!!

Yes, we live in the DC area and I looked into the auto train a few years ago. We'd have to drive an hour or whatever it is over to Lorton, VA to catch it. I have an SUV and it was going to cost more to bring it than I wanted to pay. In years past it's always been cheaper to fly & use the free DME (back when I could get round trip flights on AT or SW for $120 or $130). I haven't priced the train recently, I can only imagine it's gone up along with everything else in life. Flights for this trip are costing us $628 total which I'm guessing is still cheaper than taking the train.

It's her dates that are coating her so much. Even at the RPR

 

[Metro West]

Anal, i thought about this last night and thought i would throw this out for you.

That just sounds soooooo wrong!

 

[Anal Annie]

It's her dates that are coating her so much. Even at the RPR

Can I ask what you have decided to do or what you have found in the way of deals. We are DVC and staying at WDW in BLT from 8/3-8/9 then planned on going to US/IOA until 8/13. I prices I am getting for the hotels at US are insane. I know they include Express and early entry and they are nice and all, but $1300 for 3 nights plus tickets is not what I had in mind. Plus parking - this is turning out to be a very expensive extra couple of days.

By the way if you are in the DC area have your considered the auto-train. We take it every year. It is about the same price as flying and you have your car with you. Just a thought.

Yes, I see that's part of the problem. The Universal Seasons change from Summer to Value on Aug. 12th. The per night rates should be split though between the 2 seasons. The biggest difference seems to be at the HRH.

http://www.universalorlando.com/Hotels/Onsite-Hotel-Rates-and-Offers/Seasonal-Rates.aspx

 

[wahoostampingirl]

We went to Universal for the first time last Aug. I couldn't convince my dh to shell out the extra $$$ to stay onsite and it was a mistake. The crowds at WWoHP were insane and we were there as early as offsite guests could get there. Other headliners had long lines as well and as a result, we didn't see as much as we wanted to.

I had bought 3 day tix that don't expire until 2014, so we still have 2 days left. On our next trip (Nov. 2012), we will be staying one night onsite at Universal to get the early entry to Potter and the express pass for all the headliners. I just told my dh that we had to stay for the night somewhere and staying at Universal is $100 more than an additional night at our condo near Disney.

BTW, we started driving a few years ago when plane fares started going up. Our drive is about 15 hours and I wouldn't go back to flying unless the prices were super cheap. I love having my own car at the parks and packing whatever I want to take. I know driving isn't for everyone, but our family loves a good road trip.